Letter of a Vampire

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After several days of walking, Weed's party arrives at the entrance of the beautiful cemetary city of Todeum, which is said to be the pride of the vampire kingdom. At said entrance, Weed notices 7 pieces of wood with writing on them left behind by a vampire that tell the story of what happened to the city. As it turns out, Todeum had already fallen to Unicorns and Pegasus due to the vampires' darkness becoming too strong, such as benefiting from the blood of slave humans, which attracted enemies of the light to attack them. The result is many of the vampire residents being ousted from the city, and a Hero's Tower being built within Todeum.

As a result of reading the vampire's story, Weed and his companions are offered an A-Rank Quest to kill the Unicorns and Pegasus that currently occupy the city of Todeum, as well as the option to possibly dispose of the Hero's Tower. Rewards for succeeding in the quest would include obtaining a high-tier weapon from the vampires' treasure room, as well as the opportunity to liberate the soul of Kolderim, who's a famous Knight of the Kallamore Kingdom that was thought to have died 30 years ago. In actuality, the eastern neighboring Haven Kingdom teamed up with the vampires to have Kolderim captured, and trapped his soul within a special bead item that was then stored away within the vampires' treasure room. Freeing Kolderim would result in his saviors gaining thousands of Public Relation points with the Kallamore Kingdom, as well as resume a full-scale war that's been going on between the Kallamore and Haven kingdoms since Kolderim would revive back on the Versailles Continent to lead the Kallamore army back into battle.

Believing that the rewards are too much to pass up, Weed uses Zahab's Engraving Knife to carve his and his companions' names into the wood to accept the A-Rank Quest of liberating Todeum of the Unicorns and Pegasus. For accepting the quest, Weed and the Geomchis are then provided an additional Unranked Quest concerning taking on the Hero's Tower, which turns out to be the Intermediate Training Hall. Weed figures it's best to eventually take on the Training Hall as well knowing that it's the next step to catch up to those that have already passed intermediate level training, and that the rewards include learning new skills of the old Heraim Tribes that built the Hero's Tower.

Putting his focus back on Todeum, Weed decides that his best option to start the quest is to perform a reconnaissance mission by himself in order to map out the Unicorn and Pegasus locations, as well as the best paths to move around the city. Yurin offers to help by providing him her Sketchbook to draw out what he discovers on paper, but since Weed has no skills yet connected to drawing, she uses the next moments to teach him the required skills. She tasks Weed to draw a picture of simple apple, which despite it coming out rough is still enough for Weed to obtain the Illustration and Painting skills. After gaining said skills, Weed heads off alone into the city while his companions remain outside practicing their skills, and hunting for food, in order to be ready for when the time comes to take on Todeum's A-Rank Quest.

Within Todeum city, Weed uses Quadruple Run to help him quickly move around the multi-castle complex while evading the Unicorns and Pegasus he comes across. During the reconnaissance, Weed moves through one of the white castles filled with artwork owned by the vampires, which inspecting them increases his Art stat and Illustration skill a tad. He also comes across a casket with a sleeping vampire within it, which tells Weed that the vampires who remained behind in Todeum are sleeping in city caskets to avoid the Unicorn and Pegasus enemies. Lastly, Weed notes that up to 30 Unicorns are seen within the castle he's currently in, which tells him that each of Todeum's castles, numbering over 40, will probably have just as many Unicorns or Pegasus enemies.

After exiting the white castle, Weed notices at least 2,000 additional Unicorns and Pegasus flying around the city, which including the same additional enemies within the castles, Weed realizes that he's going to be in for a tough fight. Weed next comes across the enemy's drinking area where smaller groups of Unicorns and Pegasus stop at a creek flowing through Todeum to drink the water. Eventually, Weed comes across a massive black castle that stands out within Todeum, and enters it to locate its master vampire. He makes his way into the lord's chamber room, and approaches the casket with the sleeping vampire within it. The vampire wakes up claiming to be the new woman-loving Count of Todeum, which Weed introduces himself having gotten an idea of who it is. Upon realizing that he's reunited with his abusive former master, the familiar vampire tries to deny that he's Tori.

Unranked Quest: "Built by Ancient People, The Hero's Tower" (Weed's party members that have passed the Basic and Beginner Training Halls (Weed and the Geomchis) forcibly obtain after accepting the above quest.)

Weed's party arrives at the entrance to the city of Todeum. The city is said to have the look of a dozen old rustic castles with spires that shoot up towards the sky, and broken gravestones and burial mounds all around given that it's known as a cemetery city. There's also a cold chill felt coming from an unknown place and a thick fog that encompasses the surrounding areas.

As the first players to discover the vampire's true kingdom of Todeum, Weed's party gains 820 Fame. Additional compensation will be rewarded if the discovery is reported to an aristocratic member or a royal family member of the Versailles Continent. Weed and company also receive a Discovery Buff where quest rewards will be doubled for a week for discovering Todeum.

From Todeum's front gate, Weed observes Todeum city, which has many elegant and classically built castles connected to one another to form what looks like a huge citadel that makes the place look menacing. However, there were no traces of living beings, not even the small vampire bats.

At Todeum's front gate, Weed finds a reading in cursive carved on 7 wood board fragments that were left behind by one of the vampires. The reading basically describes the vampires' incredible gloomy life in Todeum city that increased their Power of Darkness, but said power rose to such a height that it attracted enemy Unicorns and Pegasi of the light to attack Todeum, and ousted out the vampires to claim the city as their own. With the vampires gone, the vampire's former slaves, the humans, built up Hero's Tower within Todeum while the Unicorns and Pegasi continue to occupy the city.

The vampire's life in Todeum is described as a comfortable home where he drinks blood 3 times a day, never skips sleep in the morning, does some stretching at night, and turns into a bat to fly around Todeum. Humans are basically vampire slaves, such as some acting as cattle that sacrifice their blood to the vampires.

The wood carving readings mention how the vampires and unicorns have a deep hatred for one another. The list is said to be quite long, but one bit of trivia mentions how the Unicorns snatch away the vampire's virgin maidens, and steal away the vampires' jewelry and gold.

At the end of the wood board reading, the vampire who wrote it asks for help to have adventurers go in and reclaim the pride of the vampires by destroying Hero's Tower. If that can't be done, the bare minimum would be to at least suppress the Unicorns and Pegasi that currently occupy Todeum city. Since the vampires don't use foreign currency, the vampires offer adventurers rewards from their treasury should they succeed.

After Weed finishes reading the wood carvings left behind by a vampire, he and his party are offered an A-Rank Quest to dispose of the Hero's Tower, as well as the Unicorns and Pegasi that ousted the vampires out of their city of Todeum. The quests states that those who engrave their name on the board to accept the quest will have a chance to see the true nature of the Todeum Vampire Kingdom, as well as the opportunity to free the soul of a person named Koldeurim from a bead he's trapped in within the vampire's treasure room. Rewards for completing the quest include the selection of a level 400+ unique weapon, and Koldeurim's liberation. The quest limit is failure when one who takes on the quest gets ousted out of Todeum because they died.

The quest provides additional information about the person named Koldeurim, who's said to have been a famous knight of the Kallamore Kingdom 30 years ago. Koldeurim led his army to many victories against the neighboring Haven Kingdom, but was presumed dead when it was claimed that Haven assassins killed him during a simple task where he was getting drinks for his horse. In actuality, the Haven Kingdom kidnapped Koldeurim with the help of the vampires, but were still unable to truly defeat him. As a result, a Vampire Queen seducing him succeeded in her plan to seal him away in a bead that was then stored away in the Todeum treasure room.

It's mentioned that should Koldeurim's soul be liberated, he will be revived on the Versailles Continent, and the full-scale war between the Kallamore and Haven kingdoms will resume where it left off. 23,000 Public Relation points would be provided to each person that helped liberate Koldeurim from the bead he was trapped in.

The Pegasi that have taken over Todeum city are said to be around level 420, and the Unicorns levels are a bit higher. They're also quite dangerous to take on given their ability to fly. With the exception of the Geomchis all being excited to take on powerful enemies, the rest of Weed's party believe they should reject the quest.

Carving his name into the wood readings using Zahab's Engraving Knife, Weed accepts taking on the A-Rank Quest given that the rewards, such as the 23,000 Public Relation points, is too much to pass up.

Despite knowing that his companions outside of the Geomchis are scared of taking on the quest, he carves in their names as well, which forces them to accept the quest. He states that the only reason he's making them take on the tough quest is because he doesn't want to die alone.

Weed thinks to himself that along with freeing Koldeurim and the treasure reward, there's potential to acquire Pegasus and Unicorn leathers to help raise his Blacksmith and Tailoring skills. In addition, obtaining Unicorn Horns would make for a great ingredient to create high-tier Magic Staves.

Due to accepting the A-Rank Quest, Weed and his companions are provided an additional Unranked Quest related to the Hero's Tower. It's said that the tribes of the Heraim (persumably humans) built the tower following the war, and that 11 other Hero Towers were built throughout the lands of Royal Road. Why the Hero's Tower was built is unknown, and it consists of 5 floors.

The Hero's Tower is also known as the Intermediate Training Center, and those who reach the 3rd floor or higher get the opportunity to learn a power or skill of the Heraim. Rewards include special Heraim rewards after completing each stage. Quest limits include needing to take on quests from Todeum's vampires, and are required to have already completed the Basic and Beginner Training Centers. In Weed's case, he completed Basic Training in Rosenheim, and Beginner Training in Lavias.

Due to it no longer being a secret, it's said that the number of people who've passed the Beginner Training Center has risen to around 3,000 people. However, those that have passed the Intermediate Training Center, such as the Hero Towers, have still not passed over 150.

Weed decides that his first course of action is to perform a reconnaissance mission, which is to sneak into Todeum city on his own, and map out the locations of the Unicorns and Pegasus, as well as Todeum's geography to know the most secure paths to take. He figures that given how large Todeum city is, it will take him a couple days to map out the entire area of its monsters and paths.

Pale and Hwaryeong offer to help with the reconnaissance, but Weed rejects them since Pale's enemy detection abilities as an Archer will help protect the group while Weed is away, and he wouldn't be able to cover Hwaryeong if they run into trouble.

Archers are said to be a class where parties heavily rely on the power they dish out. Their weaknesses include low defense and vitality, and can be charmed, but are essential to the party to help take down flying monsters.

Yurin provides Weed her Sketchbook and Pencil so that her brother can draw Todeum structure and its monster locations on paper. Due to Weed not having the Drawing skill, Yurin uses the next moments to teach him. Yurin makes Weed draw a simple apple, but since he's never drawn before, his first apple looks looks like an elongated melon as if a rat had munched on it.

By completing the picture of an apple despite it being an abomination, the conditions are met for Weed to obtain new skills thanks to his high agility stat, and skills in other areas raising its Artistic Value. Weed obtains the Illustration and Painting skills, which are said to be the 2 most essential skills of the Painter class.

Weed sees gaining the 2 Painter skills as good thing since Painting could help with his Sculptor class, such as coating his sculptures in different paint colors. It's said that these skills could be picked up at the Sculptor Guild, but Weed never had any desire to pick them up due to the cost of Painter materials.

Weed hands the Sketchbook and Pencil back to Yurin, and then heads off into Todeum city to begin his solo reconnaissance mission. He tells his companions that if he was to die, he will inform them through Yurin of the information he gathered up to his death.

While Weed is off on the reconnaissance mission, his companions prepare for his eventual return. Geomchi 2 is seen practicing his sword skills. For food, Zephyr fishes while Pale and Maylon hunt rabbits and birds.

Knowing that rats and cockroaches are good at not dying, Weed uses the Quadruple Run skill to help him sneak around around the city of Todeum. His basic overall reconnaissance of Todum city is that it's basically the size of dozens of Rosemheim Kingdom's Serabourg Citadels joined together.

Continuing the reconnaissance, Weed sees that Todeum's Unicorns are silver-colored while the Pegasus are red-colored. He also notes that they're really quick moving. The body of a Pegasus is said to be 3 meters long, and has the height the size of a giant troll. At one point, Weed sees as many as a dozen Pegasus grouped up.

Weed enters into Todeum's smallest white castle during the reconnaissance mission. Here, he spots numerous works and special items owned by the vampires, such as Silver Candlesticks, Gold Embedded Armor, Wall Paintings, and Sculptures. One of the works Weed sees is Maestro Elware “Nestled Lion,” which increases his Art stat by 1, and his Illustration skill by 28% due to looking at and appreciating an excellent work.

Weed walks around the white castle looking at the artworks owned by the vampires. As a result, his Art stat goes up by 650, and his Illustration skill continues to gain experience. Upon reaching Illustration level 2, Weed can now use charcoal and other new tools to draw, and his artwork can now express more detail.

Weed doesn't really care about his growth in the Illustration skill. That's because in real life, he once thought of becoming a cartoonist drawer when he was young, but his drawing and doodling never got any better throughout elementary and middle school. Due to his weak natural ability towards drawing, Weed figures that his Illustration skill is never going to rise any higher than beginner level 6, level 7 at most. As a result, he figures that it's best to just put his focus on other areas.

After finishing the art tour of the white castle, Weed next comes across a closed vampire casket with a sleeping vampire within it, but decides to leave it alone after trying to shake it to see if there really was a vampire inside. He also notices that there's as many as 30 Unicorns patrolling the white castle.

Weed figures that his biggest problem at the moment is his party's low damage output in comparison to the Unicorn and Pegasus enemies. He thinks to himself that he could probably handle up to 2 using the Sculptural Destruction buff, but the Geomchis are still too weak to take on level 400+ monsters. He figures that his party's only chance of fighting the Unicorns and Pegasus on equal footing is to fight outside.

During breaks when Weed is avoiding the Unicorns and Pegasus, he uses the downtime as an opportunity to eat pieces of bread that he prepared in advance.

After exiting the castle, Weed looks around, and sees many Unicorns and Pegasus flying around. He figures that there's at least 2000 flying around, and given that he saw 30 Unicorns in the white castle he just left, he deduces that there's going to be the same amount within each of Todeum's castles, which numbers over 40 (over 1200 additional enemies).

Weed decides not to increase his numbers by giving life to sculptures since he theorizes that he would need to grant life to least 50 high-tier sculptures to make up the difference, which would cost him too many levels and Art stats, and take too much time to make.

Quests as high as S-Rank are said to be the ones that are capable of changing the balance of the world, which is why they're the most difficult. Weed doesn't believe the quest he's currently on is hard enough to be considered S-Rank, but is annoyed that it's tough enough to be the most premium at A-Rank difficulty.

Continuing the reconnaissance mission, Weed eventually comes across a creek flowing through Todeum city that the Unicorns and Pegasus use to drink at. However, Weed sees a hope spot that only about 10 to 12 of said enemies appear at a time, which is much less than around 30 enemies within each castle. However, the downside is that many Unicorn and Pegasus groups are in line waiting nearby to have a drink.

Todeum's castles are said to have plaques present outside the entrance to show who the owner is. Some of the names seen on the plaques include Count Christopher and Viscount Burachya.

Amongst Todeum's red, yellow, and green castles, Weed stumbles across the only black castle within Todeum city. Weed makes his way through the castle's basement down to a warehouse area filled with coffins, which is said to be the largest room of the black castle where the owner stays.

In the large black castle room, Weed comes across a large black casket. Weed approaches it to investigate the casket, which a familiar voice speaks claiming that he's the new Count of Todeum, and that he's unsatisfied that the one approaching his casket isn't a cute girl. Weed introduces himself getting an idea on who he is, which the shocked vampire replies that he's "absolutely not Tori."